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Postal Service Starting To Use Mobile Point of Sale Tech
An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. Postal Service is conducting a pilot test of mobile point of sale technology in 50 facilities, using a modified iPod device and printers. During the holiday season, the 50 facilities testing mPOS processed more than 102,000 transactions using the technology."
Specifically, what the parent is referring to is the retiree prefunding required of the USPS. They have to fund health benefits for retired employees for 75 years in advance, far beyond what any other company or government agency has, or chooses, to do. Consider that the USPS is currently funding health benefits for employees who haven't even been born yet, and you can see how absurd this concept is - yet Congress still decided this was a smart idea. The USPS appears to be floundering to the outside world, but that's because of that particular $5.5 billion payment they have to make yearly, not due to some competitive pressure, or environmental change like "lower delivery volume". AFAIK, at the beginning of 2013, they had about $44 billion banked for these retirement benefits.